Writer Programs & Opportunities

Writers like you are the heartbeat of the Wattpad community. We work tirelessly to create programs to support creativity and growth, and opportunities to help writers connect their stories with new audiences. From online programs like The Wattys to IRL events like WattCon, there’s something for everyone.

Win Awards

What are the Watty Awards?

We know how validating it is to receive recognition for your work, and amazing stories on Wattpad deserve to be acknowledged. The Wattys are Wattpad’s signature award program. They’re how we honor the best and brightest from our community while celebrating the stories that unite us all.

Year over year, we at Wattpad HQ aim to evolve The Wattys in a meaningful way. From the look and feel of the contest to the award categories and the overall experience, The Wattys are a reflection of the ever-evolving vibrancy and diversity of our global community.

Why should I enter?

The Wattys are more than just a writing contest. The awards are an opportunity to share your story with a global community, get support and encouragement from other writers, and set meaningful writing goals for yourself.

Plus, winners of The Wattys receive the Wattpad hero treatment and promotion across our website and apps!

How does it work?

With so much amazing talent competing for the top prize, our final selections come down to a detailed mix of data science and overall editorial scores to make sure we get it right.

What is data science, you ask? It’s all the variables that tell us which stories match a particular set of contest criteria.

Let's pretend we created an award category called “Fan Love”. Through content experts and our data, we might decide that the amount of time someone spends reading, commenting, and voting on a story will be how we determine “fan love” metrics.

When we create a data-scientific approach to evaluating the entries, we develop an algorithm that takes all these variables into consideration. In this way we're able to surface the most promising content from our community.

Our editorial team then reviews each story individually. Here are some key elements that we evaluate:

Character: Your main character propels your entire story. We need to love them, love/hate them, or at least feel something for them in order to let them take us on a journey. If your characters have "it", we're way more likely to want to hop into the passenger seat.

Hook: Your idea is your golden ticket. Give us a hook we can sink our teeth into, like a unique concept or a new twist on a beloved cliché. The 'What If' of your story is that important spark that will turn a reader's head. It's definitely something we we look for in our nominees.

Voice: Your narrative voice is your multi-tool. Use it well and you can shape the story you want. This is where writers show off their creative artistry by weaving ordinary words into something magical. But we know it's easier said than done. That's why it's one of our key criteria for The Wattys.

World: Your world is your playground, and while we’re reading your story, it’s ours, too. While great world-building doesn't have to be complicated, it should be specific, clear, and logical within the scope of your story. Give us too little and we're lost. Give us too much and we're buried under the details.

Stakes: Your stakes are your North Star. They guide us into caring about a critical moment in time, the characters you've created, the place you've imagined. The writers who manage to grip us right from the get-go with stakes that click are the ones we're least likely to forget.

The 2018 Wattys season has ended. Check out our amazing winners, here.

Testimonials

"It’s lovely recognition of a lifelong dream, and validation that I should keep attempting to improve and reach more people."

"This community, this experience, this award, they have all opened my eyes to not only abilities I didn't know I had, but the potential for it to turn into something even more. Plus... how often do you get an award for work you do in your pyjamas?"

"Winning a Watty means acceptance. I'm sincerely grateful for the acceptance I've found here. To everyone who has befriended me, we're kindred spirits. Every time I open Wattpad, it feels like coming home."

"This community, this experience, this award, they have all opened my eyes to not only abilities I didn't know I had, but the potential for it to turn into something even more. Plus... how often do you get an award for work you do in your pyjamas?"

"Winning a Watty means acceptance. I'm sincerely grateful for the acceptance I've found here. To everyone who has befriended me, we're kindred spirits. Every time I open Wattpad, it feels like coming home."